Prepping for hurricane Milton. The area was still cleaning up from Helene. 😏 Again, Tampa hasn’t had a direct hit in over 100 years.
Most people die in hurricanes from drowning due to storm surge. Two scenarios for the Tampa Bay region.
The best scenario is it hits just south of Tampa which would have the wind blowing off shore. This would cause the water to actually be pushed out to sea and the threat of storm surge is mitigated.
The worst scenario is it hits just north of Tampa. This would put Tampa on the dirty side of the storm. This would cause catastrophic storm surge. Possibly 10 to 15 feet. That’s unsurvivable. You’d need to be on the 3rd floor or higher of a condo building.
We’re in New Port Richey which is just north of Tampa (I’m 30 miles from Tampa Airport). We are not near the water so storm surge is not an issue for us.
The worst hurricane to hit Florida was hurricane Andrew in 1992 in Homestead (southwest of Miami). After that they strengthened the building codes so homes built after 1992 were built to withstand a Category 3 hurricane. That has winds up to 129 mph.
Milton is a pretty big storm. So if the track holds this whole region will see sustained winds of 110 mph with higher gusts. Much of Florida will be affected by this storm.
